iFact attends C2MTL

From May 26th to 28th, the iFact team attended C2 Montréal, the renowned three-day event aligning commerce and creativity, located at the Arsenal in Little Burgundy. It was an dynamic mix of key speakers, collaborative workshops, master classes, as well as interactive exhibits in a custom-designed Innovation Village built specifically for the occasion.

The purpose of this three-day conference was to stimulate creative and visionary thinking for commercial problems, the creative agency in charge and its partners have conceived a an unusually comprehensive environment that fosters collaboration and the emergence of innovative business solutions, all the while creating opportunities for deeper connections between attendees.

Throughout the three days, C2MTL offered a sequence of conferences and workshops, which were as practical as they were inspirational. Here is a summary of the identified new trends and our main takeaways:

- Mike Grandinetti's "The new global workforce and the future of work" taught us about the drivers of the thriving new sharing economy (Technology - Economy - Social), and how companies such as Even, Fundbox, Square, booxi and Intuit thrive by helping freelancers (already one third of the US workforce) avoid the traditional downsides and become the new normal. Companies, in turn, learn to improvise to face the changing environment.

- Alex Kazaks pitched about disruption and innovation. In addition to traditional values, new ventures are including new criteria to their triple bottom line such as meaningfulness, connectivity, inspiration, proactiveness, and aspirations. Companies, in turn, learn to improvise to face the changing environment. One example is Littlebits, providing learning tools for kids to hack and build themselves the hardware of tomorrow.

- Social entrepreneurship and Impact investment are seen as an opportunity to align the values of the Milennials' generation with the new economy. Firms like Purpose Capital are involved in setting new standards and stewardship.

- Product development is reinvented through collaboration with customers and co-creation. This, in turn, will lead to a more meaningful approach to the customer experience through empowerment and engagement. It will also reduce the risk of failure by interaction during prototyping and through continuous customer feedback.

- Marketing and branding evolve to become consistent with new positioning to better reach the upcoming generation.

- Corporate Social Innovation will lead corporations to a new way of understanding traditional CSR, will engage the best talent and allow to extend the corporate vision with improved long-term performance and a more meaningful purpose.

As said above, C2 Montreal is not only a conference. It also was a network platform where very inspiring conversations were taking place. Connectivity, one of the conference's mantras, was supported by technology. Thus, participants were allowed (and encouraged) to have "brain dates" at the Big Wheel, or even at the Get in with a stranger nest, by matching their offers and demands through a proactive platform that encouraged meaningful exchanges between unknown professionals from any industry and/or interest.

C2 Montreal ushered in big names such as Alec Baldwin, André Agassi, and Chelsea Clinton for unique interviews, and the event complemented the brainstorming exercises with physical morning activities and delightful In your mouth experiences. In the end, the creative spark C2 Montreal brought to the Petite-Bourgogne neighbourhood during three days will hopefully bring momentum to the participants so that they may make a positive impact on our environment, society, and businesses.